Evaluating the relationship between grammage, topography and print properties in newsprint

摘要

This paper discusses the development of a technique whereby both print quality and surface properties may be examined for the same sample. Topography, grammage (mass density) and print coverage images were captured for the same region. The objective was to relate print quality to local and global variability of grammage and topography. Two samples were examined, one being regarded as having good print quality, the other with poor print quality. Grammage, topography and ink coverage showed only low level correlations, confirming observations in the literature. However, although the correlations had low R~2 values, they were often statistically significant. Generally, ink coverage showed stronger relationships with grammage than with topography. Also, the relationship between grammage and topography was different for the good and poor quality samples. The size of unprinted regions tended to be largely influenced by variations in grammage 200 to 400 μm away from the unprinted regions.